Leadership Studies Ed.D. Dissertations

What is Killing Firefighters? A Study of Volunteer Firefighter Fatalities

Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Paul Johnson (Advisor)

Second Advisor

Molly Gardner (Other)

Third Advisor

Shirley Green (Committee Member)

Fourth Advisor

Judy May (Committee Member)

Fifth Advisor

Patrick Pauken (Committee Member)

Abstract

Researchers at the University of Georgia, Kunadharaju, Smith, and DeJoy (2010), completed a study looking for patterns in firefighter fatalities and have identified four common factors which included under-resourcing, inadequate preparation for and anticipation of adverse events during operations, incomplete adoption of the incident command system or sub-optimal personnel readiness. The purpose of this study is to analyze 149 NIOSH volunteer firefighter fatality reports to determine if those fatalities could be linked to under-resourcing, inadequate preparation for adverse events during operations, incomplete adoption of the incident command system, or sub-optimal personnel readiness. Kunadharaju et al. (p. 1180, 2010) said in their article, Line-of-duty deaths among U.S. firefighters: An analysis of fatality investigations, “the underrepresentation of investigations involving volunteer firefighters deaths is a potentially significant issue, in that, the majority of firefighters in the U.S. are volunteers and the majority of line of duty deaths involve volunteer firefighters.” This research is meant to determine if Kunadharaju et al. were correct in their identification of four major factors: under-resourcing, inadequate preparation for and anticipation of adverse events during operations, incomplete adoption of the incident command system and sub-optimal personnel readiness. The focus of this study is to determine if volunteer firefighters were experiencing deaths within the areas of under-resourcing, inadequate preparation for adverse events during operations, incomplete adoption of the incident command procedures and sub-optimal personnel readiness but also what additional factors were contributing to volunteer firefighter deaths not specifically addressed in the initial study.

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